East Hampton Man Is All About The Bass

Michael Asetta is a nationally known acoustic bass player, playing concerts locally and around the world. In addition to maintaining a full performance schedule, Mike repairs and restores string instruments in his East Haddam workshop specializing in acoustic basses. (Stephen Dunn)

Mike Asetta just received a shipment of seven double basses from the Czech Republic.

The now empty, 6-foot-tall wooden packing crates look like coffins sitting upright in the deep snow outside his shop in the Middle Haddam section of East Hampton.

The shiny new basses have been added to his collection of more than 50 instruments spread throughout his workshop and display area upstairs.

Asetta is obsessed with the bass, the largest instrument in the violin family. At age 9, he was playing the trumpet. His best friend was playing Jimi Hendrix on the guitar. He wanted a piece of that action, but there was no trumpet in any Hendrix music.

So he picked up an electric bass.

After high school, he joined the Hartford Conservatory with his Fender Telecaster bass guitar. He was not satisfied. He wanted a deeper sound. When he discovered an upright acoustic bass, it was an epiphany. He heard the deep notes he was looking for. There was no turning back.

Love of the Bass

Michael Asetta is a nationally known double bass player as well as a luthier, repairing, restoring and building the large instruments.

Michael Asetta is a nationally known double bass player as well as a luthier, repairing, restoring and building the large instruments.

Asetta played at Hartford's famed 880 Club for 12 years, spent four years playing in the Air Force band (550 performances a year), and went on a national tour with the Tommy Dorsey Band.

Back home in Middle Haddam, trying to raise a family, he decided to expand his career with the double bass and learned the art of meticulous restoration, becoming a master luthier. He is now building a bass from scratch, hand-carved from spruce and maple.

"In order to get recognition as a luthier, I need to build a bass and have it judged," he said.

In addition to a national reputation as a jazz performer, Asetta also is an inspirational educator, teaching young students and adult professionals. He is a master craftsman and one of the preeminent retailers of double basses in the country.

His upstairs showroom is packed with instruments for sale. The problem is that he falls in love with them, making it hard to let go.

"I want to find good homes for them," he said. "I can't keep them all."

Asetta performs every Thursday night at 6:00 with a jazz trio at the Old Lyme Inn.